I hope you enjoyed your Fourth of July weekend more than the moonbats at AP, who predictably spent it wallowing in gloom. We're told that even the Optimists Club can hardly find a reason for America to go on living:

They use words such as "terrified," "disgusted" and "scary" to describe what one calls "this mess" we Americans find ourselves in. Then comes the list of problems constituting the mess: a protracted war, $4-a-gallon gas, soaring food prices, uncertainty about jobs, an erratic stock market, a tougher housing market, and so on and so forth. […] Happy birthday, America? This year, we're not so sure.

Even AP admits:

In 2008, using history as a yardstick, life actually is better and richer and fuller, with more opportunities than ever before.

Nevertheless, there is an election coming up and Republicans hold the White House, so we must be convinced that we're desperate for change. This is attempted by cherry-picking morose comments from pessimists, then spinning them with rhetoric like this:

The nation's psyche is battered and bruised, the sense of pessimism palpable. Young or old, Republican or Democrat, economically stable or struggling, Americans are questioning where they are and where they are going. And they wonder who or what might ride to their rescue.

I wonder who they might have in mind.

On a tip from mega. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.